Discover the key to employee retention and engagement in this insightful blog post. Learn how to create a successful onboarding process that breaks barriers to engagement while creating a sense of belonging.
“You got to let me know”
(Is there a formal onboarding process in place?)
“Should I stay or should I go?”
(Engagement! Performance! Retention!)
“If you say that you are mine”
(Well, I only just started here, so…)
“I’ll be here ‘til the end of time”
(Well, that’s absurd to assume, even with a ‘perfect’ job…)
“So you got to let me know”
(Okay, seriously, is there a formal onboarding process in place?)
“Should I stay or should I go?”
(Engagement! Performance! Retention!)
When The Clash produced “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in 1981, lead vocalist Mick Jones probably wasn't thinking about the importance of retention and onboarding. And, if we’re being honest, the Spanish background lyrics in the original song probably sound more pleasing to ears than the onboarding chorus we crafted above. Nevertheless, from a business perspective, the lyrics are comically used to emphasize the importance of the question. An employee's onboarding and first three to six months of employment have a disproportionately huge influence on retention: i.e., whether they will stay or go. Ultimately, that comes down to the employee engagement: making each person feel confident, competent, and that they belong.
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash
Onboarding – or what geeky Industrial-Organizational Psychology professionals sometimes call socialization – is how you transition someone from a candidate to a fully contributing member of your team. This goes far beyond W-2’s and health insurance. It’s how you train and develop on core tasks, but also how you foster opportunities for them to thrive and build positive bonds across your team. At its core, it’s about making sure the new hire has a remarkable experience that gives them what we call the four cornerstones that all thriving relationships require: confidence, competence, and sense of belonging to move forward.
Simply having an onboarding process does not guarantee you will have an enthusiastic and competent employee (just like Sam writing a song doesn't make him Mick Jagger). The onboarding process must be planned, structured, and implemented with intention and data-driven. Sam happened to be writing this while going through the onboarding process with our team, so it felt like the perfect time to explore this topic. As the leader (Jenn), and new teammate (Sam) we'd like to focus on a few key takeaways that can make your onboarding successful – so your employees should never ask the ultimate question, “Should I stay or should I go?”.
Retention Step One: Make their first day memorable– not full of paperwork and brief introductions.
Simply filling out a mound of paperwork and introducing new hires to their coworkers doesn’t make for a remarkable experience. Show them how excited you are to have them aboard! This doesn’t happen if you bury him or her in paperwork on the first day. The onboarding process should extend well beyond the employee’s first few days in the company. In fact, you may want to have a one-year plan in place so employees can get up to speed and make the most of the unique talent and skill they brought your company. Obviously, this is going to vary by company and circumstance. If your business is seasonal (e.g., accounting, retail), careful training as you go through the different cycles of the year can help to ensure you aren’t putting a high performing employee into a situation that sets them up for failure. Your onboarding program should last as long as it takes for new hires to develop meaningful relationships with coworkers, gain proficiency on all job tasks, and have a firm understanding of your culture, processes, and procedures. Without this, retention will always fall short.
Retention Step Two: Focus on Feedback and Development
Companies lose over 30% of their new hires sometime during their first six months of employment. What's most notable is that the perception that growth, training, and development were not prioritized most often starts during the first few weeks of onboarding. This can be prevented by providing total support for your employees’ development beyond the first few days or even the first month. You may want to have specific conversations at certain times during the employee’s tenure. This can identify concerns before they become problems and better support the employee’s success. For example, setting up a meeting with your new employee at the 30-day mark can allow for questions such as “What’s been going well? What hasn’t been going so well? Is there anything you aren’t understanding about your job or the company?” These conversations can extend through the first three to six months as well to support their development and acclimation to the culture.
At Corvirtus, we provide 30-60-90 day feedback. With this process, Jenn will reach out to to the teammates Sam is working with to understand where he's excelling and where he might need some support. Then, by meeting with Sam, we're able to understand where Sam wants to grow and what he sees as the biggest opportunities for strengthening his influence and impact for our team.
Step Three: Involve Everyone!
Unsplash+ In collaboration with Michael Tucker
New employees have the greatest likelihood of success when everyone owns the onboarding process: you, your team, and the new employee. First and foremost, the immediate manager must be completely bought into the onboarding process. The level of managerial support provided during onboarding has implications for role clarity and job satisfaction. And of course, role clarity and job satisfaction directly impact some of those key outcomes of effective onboarding that we hope will come to fruition, such as high performance, engagement, and retention. Successful onboarding should extend beyond the manager, however, and should include all current employees. By including coworkers, this helps facilitate the development of lasting, meaningful relationships to support the new hire’s transition into his or her role. Involving everyone establishes expectations, identifies concerns, work style preferences, and potential obstacles for success. This is a wonderful opportunity for strong performers to take on training roles, or act as a new hire mentor, guide, or even Sherpa – supporting the new hire’s success.
Retention Step Four: Functional Training
Successful functional training, of course, is core to successful onboarding, a positive early employment experience, and engagement. This is also where you can connect your mission and your company’s culture to the how, what, and why of how that's brought to life.
Data and feedback can only help. A needs assessment can help isolate what's most important for training and when.
With a needs assessment you will assess the current knowledge, skills, attitudes and mindsets of the target audience. What knowledge and skill do key employee groups already possess? Consider doing this through surveys, focus groups, or interviews with newer employees, in combination with information you've gathered from your hiring process. See if there are other existing sources of data you can use. Exit interviews, particularly of less tenured employees, may include feedback on how skills, attitudes, and knowledge influence the decision to leave.
Functional training provides an overview of the company’s products and services, customers, and company structure. Try including this early in small amounts. This gives new employees competence and confidence in their new roles. Additionally, training should include getting familiar with various systems used by the company (e.g., data software, Intranet, e-mail platform). Training may take the form of systems training, role-specific training, and on-the-job coaching opportunities to support skill development and learning. While mistakes are bound to be made as new employees get comfortable in their role, we understandably become frustrated and struggle with self-doubt when having to learn our jobs through a trial-and-error process over several months. Unwavering leadership support, constant communication, and that thoughtful and intentional plan for onboarding can stop employees from asking that dreaded question, "Should I stay or should I go?"
And, if you think about it, employees operating at lower levels of productivity (due to lack of training) are probably costing the company.
Determining where to invest resources, training, and effort to increase retention and engagement can be a decision full of uncertainty, but efforts focused on earning commitment and engagement within the first few months of the job are undoubtedly worthwhile. As teammates, representing both the new teammate (what we call one another), and leader, we can attest to both the data and science, as well as the experience of thinking more intentionally about the early employment experience. Obviously, the details that we mentioned are not an all-inclusive list, but rather some highlights that really stand out as being differentiators for your new employee as they build competence, confidence and belonging—and feel committed to your business and never ask that dreaded retention question. So, as a quick recap:
- Onboarding should extend beyond the first few days of employment and consists of more than simply filling out paperwork and brief introductions.
- Onboarding should include a significant amount of time for your new employee to get to know you as the manager, but also their coworkers, allowing for meaningful relationships to develop.
- Onboarding should include functional training components so that your new employee can be brought up to speed on your company’s processes, systems, and responsibilities of their role.
So, when you’re thinking about your own onboarding process and how it might be perceived by your new employee, consider the wise words of Mick Jones: “Should I stay or should I go?”
